A hand paddle, also known as a swim paddle, usually refers to an element made from hard material, usually bigger than a hand in size, appropriately profiled and attached to the hand with elastic straps or cords. The use of hard material increases the resistance of the hand during swimming, therefore the hand paddles are excellent means to develop and improve muscle strength. Hand paddles profiles may contain openings or special slots allowing water to flow through the hand paddle. The resistance created by the hand paddle while swimming is regulated by changing the size of the hand paddle. For instance, in order to force a swimmer using the hand paddle to work harder with each underwater movement made with the hand paddle, a surface of the paddle needs to significantly exceed the size of their hand.
From the patent publications U.S. Pat. No. 2,745,119 A, CA969571 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,998A and U.S. Pat. No. 7,179,146 B2, hand paddles made entirely from hard, inflexible material, for example from acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS) are known.
From the publication of industrial design description TWM 265076 U and the patent specification DE 4416760 A1, special gloves which allow a swimmer to increase the resistance of a hand are known. The gloves are used mainly in recreational swimming, fitness and aqua-aerobics. They are hardly ever used for sports training of swimmers due to the fact that the position of the hand and fingers in such the glove is not suitable for competitive swimming. The position of the fingers in such a glove is forced by its shape and size, so the fingers are widely spread in order to achieve a maximum working surface in regard to the hand's impact on water. If the cutting of the glove allows the fingers to be put together, the change of the working surface is significant and it is not used in full, as with the fingers spread out, the working surface is significantly larger than with the fingers held together, thus the resistance of the hand in water changes significantly.
The abovementioned examples of hand paddle embodiments usually have complicated shapes and are difficult to adapt to the swimmer's hand.